budget tour

Hanoi Youth Hostel is located in the center of Hanoi, middle of Old Quarter.

This cozy hostel is packed with all the amenities you would expect in hostel including: clean, safe, and spacious dorm rooms with FREE breakfast, FREE lockers, FREE wifi, FREE towel, a bar with many games at the lobby.

Relax and enjoy the leisure facilities of the Hanoi Youth Hostel which include a 24h bar with alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, a Internet cafe, a flat screen TV with international satellite television channels.

To make your trip a memorable experience, we also have a vibrant staff with diverse backgrounds to greet you.They will give you the scoop on exciting events, restaurants and night spots in Hanoi.

I woke up at 5am and rode my motorbike to the West Lake. Around that area, there are many flower villages. I went to one of them which is located near the West Lake Water Park, in order to take photos of a lotus lake and some activities that only take place in the early hours of the morning. The lotus season in Hanoi starts from June and lasts 3 months. Every morning from 5am to 7am, the local residents, who own the lotus lakes, tour around the lakes on very small boats (in Vietnamese, we call them “thuyền thúng”) and pick both flowers and leaves, following the orders from their clients who are waiting on the bank. This is a wholesale business. Any business people, who want to buy lotus flowers cheaply, go there to buy flowers directly from the lake owners, then sell them at their shops in Hanoi. We also can see lotus flowers on the back side of street vendors’ bicycles. Some Hanoians also go to the lotus lakes in early morning and buy flowers for their houses. The lotus flower is not only beautiful, but also has a very good smell.

So I got into the lotus lake at around 6am. I watched a local man standing on a very small boat and touring on his lake. Later I found out his name was Mr. Quang. Sometimes he was back with flowers and handed them to the women waiting for him on the bank. I also watched how people covered the lotus flowers with the leaves, then packed them with bamboo strings and put them into their bikes before leaving for Hanoi’s markets.

A woman and her son were sitting on the road and taking off the inner parts of the lotus flowers. They will be mixed with tea, as a result, the tea will have a very good smell, in Vietnamese we call it “chè sen” (lotus tea). I asked the woman whether it was possible for me to join the boat with Mr. Quang. She said certainly I could, but I should wait until he finished working. I wondered how it would be, if I could rent a boat and get out on my own. She said it would be impossible, since the boat and long pole may be stuck inside the roots of those lotus trees,

When Mr. Quang was back, I told him I wanted to join the boat with him and he agreed. His house (a 3-storey building) is located by the lake and he also has a small tent right on the lake, so I went to his tent and waited for him. I changed into a white Áo Dài (Vietnamese traditional dress) and Mr. Quang’s wife gave me her conical hat and a bunch of lotus flowers. Problem is that I went there alone, so we needed to find someone to help me take photos. The boat is too small, so close-up photos would not be good like a great view of the lake, when someone stands on the bank or sits on another boat to take photos of me.

As soon as I stepped my foot on the boat, Mr. Quang smiled and said “Look at the crowd!” who were standing on the other side of the lake. I wondered why suddenly there appeared so many people (more than 20 people) watching every move of our boat and taking photos. It turned out that they were

Japanese tourists passing by the place and saw my Áo Dài and the boat. It must have been a beautiful Vietnamese sight for them.

We were moving toward the bank, where the Japanese tourists were standing. Mr. Quang saw his friend there and asked him to help me take some photos. Mr. Quang also thought that was the best place for taking photos, as the leaves are high and large, I could stand up and be surrounded by green color of the leaves. I handed my camera to his friend, but when we moved far away from the bank and I stood up, his friend struggled with using my camera and there was no way I could be back and explain him how to use my camera. I said “Please help me!” in Japanese, and a Japanese girl offered me a help with some shots by my camera.

Mr. Quang said that some brides and grooms also went to the lotus lake for taking their wedding photos. My photos were not as good as I expected, since there were only 2 people on the bank who could help me take my shots and they were too far from

me. I should have been there with a photographer or a friend, but I didn’t want to bother someone to go with me at 5am in the morning. At the end of the boat trip, I gave Mr. Quang VND 100,000 as a tip.

The boat ride on the lotus lake was the most interesting experience for me, when comparing with the boat rides on the bay, river or stream I’ve done. Imagine you are sitting on a very small and light boat controlled by a long pole, managing to keep the boat balanced, finding your way among the leaves and flowers (sometimes your boat hits them), holding flowers in your hands, having some worms sticking on your dress and the mud made your white dress dirty.

I said to Mr. Quang “This beautiful place in Hanoi should be preserved. We should not make this place become a land of concrete buildings” and he agreed with me.

In 2012 I visited Sapa in Vietnam and instantly fell in love. Sapa is a special place, nestled high in the mountains near the border of China, where the air is fresh and the views are breathtaking.

After spending time in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Sapa was the perfect place to escape the hustle and bustle. We did two days of trekking and were able to visit local villages along the way. Getting a glimpse into life in Sapa and the nearby villages was an eye opener. It was quite cold up in the mountains and many children did not have shoes or jackets and running hot water was non existent for many families. I felt very fortunate that night to go back to my hotel and have a warm shower – something that I take for granted everyday.

The people we met in Sapa were beautiful. They were gentle, kind and genuinely interested in what life was like for us in Australia. One of my favourite things about traveling is the interesting people you meet along the way. They stick in your mind and give you the warm and fuzzy feelings when you think back.

As a part of the tour we visited a local meat market. What an experience. I won’t post photos, but let’s just say as soon as I got home I hugged my dog very tightly. Again, an eye opener.

I would love to visit Sapa again. I even weirdly enjoyed the 10 hour overnight train trip there – it’s all part of the experience.

‘Madam, Motor’… ‘Madam, Motor…’ This is how most of the Vietnamese motor-bikers in Hanoi used to approach me, trying to convince me to get on their bike for a ride for a certain amount of money. For those who didn’t experience Vietnam yet, please be advised that crossing the streets is a challenge.

The country in general and Hanoi in particular, is humming and buzzing with traffic. A steady stream of motorbikes, rickshaws and cars driving around in both directions. Not once, did I join a group of people or someone else just to cross the street, and I won’t lie if I say that sometimes I just hold my breath, praying silently I will make it safe to the other side of the street. I arrived to Hanoi at the end of January, few days after Tet Holiday and the streets of the city were even more buzzing and humming, especially during night time, when families went out for dinner, ice cream treat and some loud Karaoke.

I arrived to Hanoi planning on staying for only two days but ended up staying for longer.

One of the reasons was the place I’ve stayed. I booked a room in Hanoi Hibiscus Hotel, a family hotel, few meters away from the Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in the Old Quarter and it instantly became my ‘home away from home’ place to stay. The central location of the hotel and the friendly professional staff, made my stay much easier than in Ho Chi Min City, where I landed, which has inspired some culture shock. The area around the Cathedral was packed with young crowds, all sitting in the local cafes on plastic stools, drinking tea with lots of lemon and cracking sun-flower seeds, leaving a trail of shells on the ground. Fashionable young girls driving on their motor bikes, was a common thing to see.

The variety of places to see and visit, the comfortable weather at that time of year, the great street food and the sense of tourism, made the North of Vietnam more welcoming and easier to travel.

I’ve booked an initial tour to get to know some parts of the city with Hanoi City Tours, a free tour by a local young student, who wants to improve his/hers English skills and at the same time introduce and promote their city.

I chose to have my guided tour in the Old Quarter or what called the ’36 Streets’, a labyrinth of old streets, evolved in the 13th century when artisan guilds were concentrated along each of the original 36 lanes, and clustered by speciality; Silver street (where you can find silver jewelry as well as gravestones), Silk Street, Mats Street, Paper Street, etc. Each of the 36 craft guilds once had its own communal house, however, like most of the quarter’s pagoda and temples, they were shut down during the communist takeover and transformed into schools or public housing.

In the outskirts of the Old Quarter, there is the Temple of Literature (located to the south of the Fine Arts Museum at Pho Quoc Tu Giam street). When it was first built, it was the school of the Elite of the Nation and Vietnam’s first University. After passing exams at the local levels, scholars who wanted to become seniors came here to study for rigorous examinations. It got its name ‘Temple of Literature’ at the beginning of the 19th century, and now serves as a place where people and mostly students come and write a prayer and a wish and ask for success in their studies. If you want to be like the locals, have your wish or prayer written by one of the calligraphers outside the temple. I visited the temple one afternoon, during the last days of Tet Holiday. It was packed with young students who came by, all excited and anxious when there was a special ceremony, all praying for a good luck in the up coming year. The Temple is a homage to Confucius, peaceful and spiritual, arranged in a series of a linked courtyards. I was walking past tone-stealed shaped like turtles, overlooking the students praying with a great intention. (Felt so relieved I don’t need to pray for my next school year)

One of the most beautiful pagodas that exists in Hanoi is the Tran Quoc Pagoda, which is located beside the Red River and perhaps is the oldest one in Hanoi, dated from the year of 1639. I was there one afternoon watching the crowd lighting perfumed incense and giving fruits and fake money to their Gods, just at the last days of Tet Holiday.

While you are in the area, you can walk along the river towards the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Presidential Palace near by. Make sure to check the opening hours in advance and the strict rules of the mausoleum. By the time I got there by noon, it was already closed. Some of my friends told me I didn’t miss a thing though….

Even though I didn’t plan it, I paid a visit to Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the infamous Hanoi Hilton. The prison was used by the French people who imprisoned, tortured and guillotined Vietnamese revolutionaries, and later on was used by the Vietnamese who prisoned American pilots, including the Republican senator John McCain. One can easily notice the hinted propaganda by the way the Vietnamese represent themselves as considerate to the American needs. As scary as it is, I really recommend to visit this site.

From Hanoi, it is very easy to book a day-or two day trips to Halong Bay or book a midnight train to Sapa in the North. April is a great time to visit Vietnam. The weather is comfortable, the trees are blooming and the food is always great.

The slick and the sublime clash head-on in Hanoi — here’s a quick look at four of the city’s most Twitter-able spots. For something a little bit different or a little bit special, book yourself in at one of these local Hanoi hot spots.

Restaurant Bobby Chinn

Great food, awesome service, strong drinks — what else do you need?Restaurateur, TLC food and travel show host, and chef extraordinaire, Bobby Chinn is a global hybrid, and this is evident in his acclaimed pan-Pacific fusion cuisine.

His opulent restaurant is located in his own home on Ho Tay (West Lake), one of the most fashionable sections of Hanoi. His digs feature a popular downstairs bar and lounge, an extensive contemporary art collection, silk drapes — red or yellow — and excellent service.

RBC is the sort of place you can come for romantic fine dining, business lunches (private boardrooms available), or party till late with the man himself. Egyptian shisha (water pipes) are optional but highly recommended.

Mai Gallery

Mai Gallery was the first private gallery in Hanoi, opened in 1993, and has become regarded as one of the best places in the country to discover talented new Vietnamese artists.

Names such as Dang Xuan Hoa, Nguyen Quan and Tran Quang Minh have appeared on the walls of the three 110-square-meter halls, and international names have made some appearances too.

Mai Gallery was established by poet and reputed intellect Duong Tuong and his daughter, Tran Phuong Mai, now runs it.

If you’re here to buy, paintings range from US$300 pieces from relatively unknown artists to US$5,000 works from one of the “Gang of Five” — a group of artists who were the first to gain recognition internationally in the 1990s.

La Badiane

The cool, stylish decor is the last reason to come to La Badiane.If you’re looking for succulent beef tenderloin that falls away from the bone with the first stab of your fork; if you’re looking for tuna cooked to pinkish perfection and laid lovingly over a bed of sea-salty paella; if you’re looking for chocolate desserts that linger on your tongue for hours; if you’re looking for staff who are so helpful and charming you start smiling before you’ve even taken a bite; if you’re looking for a restaurant that you’ll pay more for, but that’s worth every dong, you need to go to La Badiane.

French chef Benjamin Rascalou is a master of his art, and a man obsessed with detail. The dishes can take a little longer than you might expect to arrive, but that’s because Rascalou cooks it like he would for his own family.

Those in the know followed him from his last restaurant to La Badiane, and more keep coming. Don’t miss a chance to eat here.

The Rooftop Bar & Restaurant

Great drinks, better views at Hanoi’s Rooftop Bar and Restaurant.According to its Facebook page, The Rooftop Bar & Restaurant on the 19th floor of Hanoi’s Pacific Place building is “where the beautiful people meet.”

But ignore the cheap hubris, because this place really is a great one for lifting yourself away from Hanoi’s dusty street persona. It’s cool, it’s clean, and it gives one of the best views of Hanoi from its rooftop terrace in the sky.

With two DJs each night, two cocktail bars, a chilled-out lounge, monthly promotions such as jazz nights and that great rooftop, this is about as New York as it gets in Vietnam’s capital.